Threshold
by McCoy
Summary: A natural disaster threatens to destroy all of Jump City, and possibly more.     Femslash/AU
1. Chapter 1

The stars shone brightly.

After soundly defeating the Brotherhood of Evil, all of the Titans' greatest enemies were either behind bars or dead. The absence of super-villains left Jump City relatively peaceful, with the crime level dropping dramatically - not even common thugs wanted to risk facing the Titans. They remained vigilant, but with the people of the city at the safest they'd been in years, their help was not needed nearly as much. Each Titan found his or her own way to fill the unexpected free time.

**-TT-**

"How are your students coming along, Cyborg?" asked Robin. He and his biomechanical friend were strolling through the expanded Titans Tower, examining the construction work on the new east wing. Cyborg grinned proudly.

"You tell me. They're the ones who handled the work here. I only stood around and did the odd heavy lifting for 'em." He patted the nearby wall affectionately. "Solid construction, too. The twins take as much pride in their work as I do, and Eli doesn't quit until he outstrips both of them. That's how I know they're great mechanics."

In months past, Cyborg had taken a shine to street racing. This quickly led to the destruction of the T-Car in a rather violent accident, leaving Cyborg physically fine but emotionally shattered. Thinking the car to be unsalvagable, he brought the T-Car's wreckage to the city junkyard and gave it a tearful farewell before returning to the Tower to draw up plans for a new model. Unbeknownst to him, three children had been scavenging in the yard at the time. Using crude, simple tools, they fitted the T-Car with a functional (albeit rusty) chassis and used various parts found in the yard to restore it to working order. Cyborg got the surprise of his life when he walked outside to get the morning newspaper two months later, and found a beaten-up T-Car sitting on the Tower's front lawn next to three grinning kids. There was a brown-haired boy, Joseph, and his brunette sister, Sam. They were fraternal twins. Their friend, a taller boy with a bright shock of wild yellow hair, was named Elijah. "That's Eli for short," as he had put it.

Cyborg was so impressed with their work that he asked if they wanted to learn how to become '_real_ mechanics' – and with that, he took them under his wing. The children were already gifted beyond belief. Years spent fiddling with various gadgets in the junkyard had given them a unique, natural understanding of mechanical and electrical engineering. They quickly adopted Cyborg not only as a teacher, but also as an older brother of sorts, and became fiercely loyal to him. His apprentices were overjoyed when he told them he wanted them to help renovate the Tower.

**-TT-**

"Raven, are we able to see Tamaran from here?"

Though they had always been on opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, Raven and Starfire had become good friends ever since their first battle with the Puppet King. While they disagreed on nearly every topic, their discussions never seemed to grow into argument – rather, the two of them were fascinated by one another's differences and they were satisfied with merely understanding the other's point of view. However, after the battle with the Brotherhood, they discovered something they both had a passion for.

While innocently rummaging through Raven's massive library of ancient grimoires, Starfire discovered an old text about ancient astronomy. Though much of the information was incorrect and downright silly, the Tamaranean girl was impressed at the accuracy of the ancient star charts, and that the people of past civilizations could discover what they did with only the crudest of astronomical tools. Raven was initially furious that the other girl had invaded her space (again) but that was quickly overridden by surprise when she saw the book Starfire had found. Raven had always had a secret fondness for the night sky. She would spend many nights on the roof of the Tower gazing upward, using the brilliant inky depths of space as a focus for her meditation. She was now as familiar with the stars as she was with her own bedroom.

"I don't think so, Star. It's too far away. But I can show you where it would be, if we could see it," responded Raven. She stood up and examined a computer terminal installed on the Tower roof. After having the computer run a few numbers, she was rewarded with a set of coordinates. Raven returned to Starfire's side and manned the small, consumer-grade telescope they'd purchased.

"Here, Star. Tamaran's solar system would be somewhere here, just behind the Orion constellation."

"Orion – that is the hunter, yes? A warrior, like my people," said Starfire with a hint of pride. Raven raised her eyebrows slightly, mild surprise betraying her normally stoic expression.

"Yeah. What a strange coincidence." The dark-haired girl glanced at Starfire for a moment, studying her features. Her friend seemed almost melancholy. Starfire gently outstretched her hand to the sky, loosing a small starbolt at Orion's belt, as if to send a small part of herself home. The girls watched the soft green glow of solar energy fade away into the sparkling night sky. Raven curiously noted that starborne glimmer as it reflected off Starfire's eyes, the girl gazing towards her distant homeworld.

She looked away after a moment and wrapped her cloak around herself once again.

"It's getting late. We should head back inside." Raven collected the telescope and headed for the roof door. Starfire remained for a few more seconds before following her.

"Yes. Thank you for showing me this, Raven."

**-TT-**

The Titans retired to their rooms for the evening, looking forward to another day of quiet patrols and productivity – but something began to brew beneath the earth that night, something that would threaten to yank the population from its peaceful reverie and return chaos to the streets of Jump City.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Starfire and Raven set off on patrol. Due to the lowest crime rate that the city had seen in weeks, the Titans had actually agreed that only one of them was needed to patrol at any one time, but Starfire had offered to accompany Raven. It had been some time since they'd seen Beast Boy, but they remained in contact with him and always passed by his new home on their patrols.

The green shapeshifter had found his own way to help the city – he'd opened an animal shelter. There were hordes of loose cats and dogs in Jump City, and Beast Boy took them all in. The land the shelter was built on was one of the things the city had gratefully donated to the Titans after their victory over the Brotherhood, and Cyborg & his apprentices had helped Beast Boy with the actual construction. Though it appeared to be quite mundane on the outside, it was likely the most state-of-the-art soup kitchen in the world, outfitted with all the technological innovations that Cyborg had built into the Titans Tower. Beast Boy had taken to living there in order to better care for the animals, but he remained as much a part of the team as ever and kept in close communication with his teammates via his own communicator and the powerful computer running the shelter itself.

As the girls touched down in front of the shelter, Starfire drew her communicator and tuned it to Beast Boy's frequency.

"Friend Beast Boy, we are here to see you! May we come in?"

Immediately, protective steel plating sprang out of the building's walls and covered every door and window. Thick metal struts projected out from the building at a downward angle, planting themselves forcefully into the ground. It now looked more like a military bunker than an animal shelter. Raven glared at the front door and snatched the communicator from a confused Starfire's hands.

"Real funny. Star wanted to come here to see you. Don't be a jerk, open up."

The radio was silent for a few seconds, then crackled to life as their green teammate finally responded. His voice was barely audible over an alarm blaring in the background.

_"-not me -early-ystem. Can you hear me? It's this stupid early warning defence system Cy installed, I can't figure out how to shut the thing off. Dude, this siren is so frickin' lo-"_

"Early warning for what?" asked Raven, suspicion written all over her face. Cyborg's machines didn't just go haywire, no matter who was operating them.

_"He said it was for 'size-mic activity', whatever the heck that even means. I think he was just making fun of me. I can't help that I'm short, it's the way I was born."_

"Friend Raven, is the ground supposed to be shaking?"

_"Whoa, the ground is shaking."_

Raven and Starfire were instantly on high alert as the very earth they stood on began to tremble dangerously.

"No, Star, this is an earthquake. Don't they have earthquakes on-" Raven paused. "Never mind. Just get ready to help people." She didn't bother reporting back to Robin. He'd already know.

They took flight as the ground became too unsteady to stand on. Nearby citizens were having a hard time staying on two feet as they stumbled towards their homes in a panic. Starfire felt as confused as they were, though she had her Tamaranean gifts to keep her safe. She gazed at the chaos around her: people running in every direction, car alarms being set off, the sound of objects breaking and crashing both near and far, and above all – the disturbing chorus of thousands of screaming citizens.

As she scanned the area, her eyes landed on Raven once more and she quickly felt a small wave of relief. The solemn girl had retained her composure as the event escalated and was concentrating silently, levitating in cross-legged meditation. Black energy flared from her body as she performed some odd ritual. Knowing that her friend was keeping a cool head made Starfire feel more sure of herself. She quietly nodded – more to herself than to Raven – and looked back at the chaos with renewed assertion. She would be ready to act.

She did not have to wait long. Raven stopped what she was doing and turned, pointing towards a nearby skyscraper.

"Star, that building is going to collapse. Come on!"

"Yes!" replied Star, a little too eagerly. The pair sped off to the skyscraper, some nameless office building. The building's steel skeleton groaned under the stress the earth was putting on it. It had not been built to take this kind of punishment, and it was simply not going to stand for that.

"Raven, look! Down below. It appears that the citizens are leaving the building already!"

Everyone in the skyscraper indeed appeared to have left, probably according to the emergency escape plan of whatever company owned the place. They could be seen collected at the base of the building far below, running away from it in droves. However, something was still not right.

"Almost. There's still.. some people left, near the top of the building. They're trapped."

Starfire looked at her friend, puzzled. They were still several hundred feet away.

"How do you know?" she asked.

Raven swallowed nervously as she opened her mouth to reply.

"I can feel their fear."

They entered through a broken window near the top floor, when a thought occurred to Starfire.

"Wait. This building may topple, and hurt many people below. I will make sure they are safe." Starfire took off to the ground to herd people away from the skyscraper.

Raven nodded quickly and drew her communicator.

"Robin. Starfire and I are at the..." She glanced around. "...Alpine Paper office building, just northwest of Beast Boy's place. It's about to collapse." She didn't wait for a reply, but mounted the comm on her belt just in case. Robin's voice came through as she rushed further into the building.

_"Roger. Cyborg and I are dealing with similar problems. Beast Boy says he's on his way. We'll be there as soon as we can."_

"Amazing. He figured out how to leave his own home." she said to nobody in particular. This floor of the building was rocking dangerously. Raven was actually within earshot of the trapped civilians now, and she could see why – one of the main roof supports had given way due to the entire structure warping, and brought down the roof with it. There were chunks of concrete, drywall, wooden planks and steel girders everywhere. Dust obscured her vision and infiltrated her lungs, causing her to cough. She brought her cloak across her face as she pressed forward.

As Raven neared the victims, she noticed that she was sweating – not due to stress, but due to heat. The room she was in had become uncomfortably warm in the short time she'd been there. Now tackling excessive temperatures, shaking, dust-clogged senses and a loud rumbling noise -

That noise hadn't been there before. Raven hurriedly emerged into the next room and readied her powers, as she saw the trapped civilians. She moved some rubble out of the way and freed them, urging them to run for the exit as fast as they could. The ominous rumble grew to a roar. The escaping civilians were still a few meters ahead of her when the wall next to Raven exploded.

**-TT-**

Something rang out in Starfire's mind and she snapped her head up towards the tower. An instant later she was halfway there, when the top of it was rocked by the explosion, blowing out the glass for two to three floors below.

She plowed through the debris with starbolts, all the building's stability already gone. She was greeted with a grim picture: Raven was trapped underneath a large pile of concrete, barely conscious. There was a small amount of blood running down her head and she was coughing weakly, one hand outstretched and projecting a telekinetic barrier over the three terrified office workers, the only thing keeping a large section of roof from crushing them to death. With her senses dazzled by the explosion & dust, and the electrifying pain jolting through her entire body from the concrete on her back, it took all of Raven's effort just to keep from passing out. To also manifest a shield like that was a superhuman feat.

_"Raven!"_ screamed Starfire. At her voice, Raven stirred and glanced up – and her shield began to fail. She mumbled something incomprehensible as the field over the citizens faltered and the debris began to shift. The remaining roof began to slide as well, connected to the debris over Raven. It would sure fall and kill her when the shield completely failed.

Starfire did not have time to rescue both. Raven was her best friend, but she was duty-bound to protect the people of the city. How could she choose?

The telekinetic field winked out of existence. Starfire felt adrenaline rush through her body as panic gripped her... and a green blur _whooshed_ past her body, to the civilians. She was in shock for one second before relief washed over her: A giant green gorilla was standing over them, supporting the debris with his enormous back and keeping it from falling.

"Get her, Star! This isn't exactly.. _hnnng.. _easy!" shouted Beast Boy, straining under the weight of the roof. She didn't need to be told twice. Eyes blazing bright green, she flexed her deceptively strong alien muscles and threw the entire pile of debris right off of Raven's body. Tentatively, she examined the girl. She'd passed out but was breathing normally. Starfire gently picked her up, cradling her protectively as she looked back at Beast Boy. The civilians had already run from harm, waiting at the exit for the Titans. The shapeshifter turned into a fly, easily avoiding the roof as he let it come crashing down around him.

"This building's coming down, Star. You gotta take Rae back to the Tower right away. I've got these guys, just go!" said Beast Boy. He transformed into a large pterodactyl, and the civilians climbed onto his back. He and Starfire leapt from the building and took off into the sky safely, letting it crash to Earth behind them.


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N: **Sorry about the long wait! Took awhile to decide where I wanted to go with this story. Thanks so much to the folks following it, glad y'all seem to enjoy. Also, any criticism is good criticism.**)**

* * *

><p>Raven groaned before she actually opened her eyes. There was a dull, throbbing pain pulsing through her torso every few seconds. She slowly came to, sitting up on the infirmary bed and looking around. She'd been returned to the Titans Tower.<p>

Despite the pain, her injuries didn't seem too bad. The infirmary's devices had done their job. She gave herself a quick once-over. A few minor cuts along her arms and face had been sealed with subtle bandage work.

"Hello?" she asked the otherwise empty room.

There was no response.

Suddenly, Raven felt a slight tremor grip the Tower - the seismic activity was still happening. She wondered how long she'd passed out for. Closing her eyes, she silently meditated on the bed for a few minutes, then reached out with her extrasensory perception just in time to detect Starfire bursting through the door.

"Friend Raven, you are awake!" exclaimed the Tamaranean girl joyously. She bolted to Raven's side, eager to wrap her in a bone-crushing hug, but stopped short as she remembered the situation.

Raven flinched and waited for the breath to be inevitably squeezed from her lungs. But when it never happened, she glanced at Starfire, her friend now apprehensive.

"What happened, Star?"

"You do not remember?" Raven shook her head. "Oh.. well, you were trapped under a large portion of office building. The healing machine said several of your ribs were cracked, but I believe it mended them for you."

Raven softly poked her ribcage, and the dull pain flared at her touch.

"I see. How... long have I been here?"

"I do not know the exact time, but you've been asleep for most of the day. The sun has already gone down."

The dark-haired girl's brow furrowed. They had gone on patrol before noon. That meant she'd been out cold for at least eight or nine hours, but the seismic event was still happening. She made to get off the bed and winced as pain shot through her, eliciting a soft yelp. Starfire leapt forward and gripped her gently.

"Be careful, you are still not fully healed. You should stay here and rest. The others can handle the situation for now, most of the citizens are safe." said Starfire.

"The others, they're still out there? All of them?" Starfire nodded. "You brought me back here?" Another nod, and a smile.

"Thanks, Star. I owe you one."

The other girl shook her head. "You do not. You are my best friend, Raven." She leaned over and gently kissed her friend's forehead. Raven flushed. "Besides, I would not have known to arrive so fast if you hadn't called for me."

She walked over to the infirmary computer to examine something. Raven swung her legs carefully over the side of the bed, preparing to stand up.

"I did what? Weren't you down at the ground level herding people away from the building?"

Starfire glanced back. "You don't remember? When you shouted... um, something, at me. At least, I think it was you. It felt like you, in my mind. It felt like you needed help, so I flew up to assist. Then there was an explosion." She tilted her head slightly. "You really do not remember?"

Raven didn't remember because she hadn't consciously done it, but she knew exactly what Starfire was describing. She spied her cloak hanging nearby and quickly donned it, grateful for being able to hide her face.

"I-I guess I'm just a bit disoriented from the explosion. I'll be alright. Let's go, I can fly fine."

Starfire detected a note of worry in Raven's voice, but decided not to press the issue, writing it off to her being shaken from injury.

"I will tell Robin you are awake, he is going to meet us at Beast Boy's shelter."

**-TT-**

"The worst of the events seem to happen only around the city. There are a few tremors further out in the rural areas, but they've been consistently weak and aren't a threat. JCPD has evacuated most of the citizens already, so everyone is out of the immediate danger zone. For now."

Robin and the other Titans were squatting in the park outside of the shelter. There were only a couple skyscrapers nearby, and they'd already collapsed for the most part. A loose block of concrete lazily slid off of a building's remains in the distance, its deep thud echoing across the streets.

Beast Boy himself was circling overhead, keeping an eye out, but other than the constant quaking of the earth there was no suspicious activity. Even looters had quickly fled the city, fearing for their safety.

A distinct humming noise grew in volume as Cyborg pulled up to the group in the T-Car. He stepped out and steadied himself against the shaking ground before carefully walking to his teammates.

"Sensors are in place. We can keep an eye on 'em from the car and see what's happening under the surface as deep as... about 130 kilometers, if I did the calibrations right. Should be deep enough to hit our tectonic plate, maybe see what's going on." said Cyborg.

"Where's your team? Are they safe?" asked Robin.

"Safe enough. Blocked access to the main Tower levels, so they're hiding in the basement. Nothing'll collapse on them with that kind of reinforcement. Also, they'll be giving us a hand with the sensor data." He flipped on his communicator. "We green, Eli?"

The corner of Cyborg's mouth curled slightly with satisfaction as he received an affirmative, and gave Robin a thumbs-up. The acrobat waved the rest of his team over and they gathered around the screen sitting on the T-Car's hood. Cyborg went through a few procedures with his team back at the Tower.

"Initial sweeps are clean. No sign of explosives or other nasty tricks immediately below the city. Let's go ahead and do a deep scan, low as we can go. Should bounce off the tectonic plate."

Starfire looked at Cyborg with a puzzled expression. "Um, what is.. tech tonic? I am unfamiliar with this word."

"Tectonic plates are big huge sheets of rock under the surface of the Earth that slide around, and sometimes they catch on each others' edges and snap and that's what makes the ground shake so much."

Everyone stared at Beast Boy, whose nose was buried in a book while he spoke. He looked up when he noticed the silence.

"What? It says so right here in the manual Cy gave me for my place, figured now's as good a time as any to read it." Satisfied with his answer, Beast Boy resumed reading. Raven arched an eyebrow at Cyborg expectantly. He shrugged.

"My team added lots of pictures." replied Cyborg. Robin grinned momentarily and looked back at Starfire.

"Beast Boy's right, Star. But these plates are very far below the surface, so we have to dig deep to find them."

Right on cue, the screen on the T-Car's hood gave a how-do-you-do tweet and displayed a bunch of numbers. Everyone crowded around again and leaned in close, each straining to see the results first. Cyborg immediately pored over the data.

"Deep scan's done. Looks like we found the plate under the city, too. And..." he furrowed his brow and tapped a few keys, then looked even more distressed.

"What's wrong?" asked Raven. Cyborg looked at his team, confused.

"Absolutely nothing. Plate movement is perfectly normal. No signs of recent breakage, no existing fault line, just... nothing." The ground violently rumbled in disagreement. "Whatever's happening down there... it isn't natural. Mother Earth ain't behind this."

Robin looked at the ground, eyes narrowed.

"Sounds right up our alley."


	4. Chapter 4

The team returned to their headquarters. They had somewhat gotten used to the steady shifting of the earth beneath their feet, but stayed on the ground level. Robin fixed them with a stern gaze as he laid out their duties.

"Cyborg, I need you to head to our mainframe and bring up city plans dating back to the last ten years. If there's malicious intent behind this, it means there's likely some equipment or a facility down there – both of which mean construction has to have occurred. If there had been any major excavation around the city recently, we'd know, so get those schematics and look for the lowest possible pre-existing point in the city."

Cyborg nodded and set off to the main computer on the ground level, talking over his shoulder as he went.

"I'm on it. But searching that far back is going to take a long time, probably a couple hours."

Robin considered this for a moment as Cyborg left the room. He turned to the others.

"What should we do, Robin?" asked Beast Boy.

"I need you and Starfire to search the sewer system. It's possible our culprit is based there somewhere, or at least the entry point to wherever he is. Stay in radio contact and report back to me if you find anything."

"Dude, the entire sewer system? That's _huge!_ It'll take us-"

"A couple hours, if you split up. Both of you can move quickly and find your way in the dark." Robin dropped his stern facade for a moment and grinned at Beast Boy. "Just try not to step in too much sewage. You'll stink up the Tower."

Beast Boy walked away with a giggling Starfire as he grumbled under his breath. Robin turned to Raven.

"So where does that leave me?"

The Boy Wonder motioned for her to follow as he stepped outside on to the Tower's front lawn.

"I think you'd be most useful patrolling the city above ground, parallel to Starfire and Beast Boy's movements below the surface. Keep in contact with them and if they run in to trouble, you'll be able to arrive first."

Raven narrowed her eyes.

"I'm _backup?_"

"What? No, it's.. look, I just want to keep all the bases covered. We need to make sure this doesn't get any worse."

"Is it my injuries? You think I can't handle myself, is that it?" She was raising her voice, a hint of anger creeping in to her tone.

Robin arched an eyebrow, slightly taken aback – but only for a moment. He crossed his arms.

"You're the empath. Why don't you tell me how insincere I am?"

Raven briefly tuned herself to Robin and felt no trace of deceit coming from him. Her eyes widened as she realized how irrationally she'd just acted.

"Robin – I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that." Why did she lash out at him like that? She hadn't meant to. "I'll set off after Star immediately."

The Titans' leader looked at her with mere confusion.

"Are you sure you're alright? Maybe it wouldn't hurt to have Cyborg take another look at you."

"No, no, it's nothing. There's nothing. I'll report back if something happens." She promptly took flight towards the city center.

Robin watched her for a few seconds, his face a picture of suspicion.

"She'll tell me when she's ready, I guess." he said to himself as he walked back inside.

**-TT-**

Starfire soared through the wide sewer pipes, her hand blazing with starbolt energy to light the way. The surface occasionally peeked through a grate and provided a brief glimpse of the ruined city above. While there was collapsed rubble in the sewers here and there, they were cushioned very well with dense soil on all sides and were still in decent shape.

She had been searching for about twenty minutes before she noticed it. It had been difficult to tell at first, partly due to her unique physiology and partly due to how distracting the smell was. But as she wiped sweat from her forehead for the sixth time in five minutes, it occurred to her how hot it was underground.

Deciding this was important enough to radio in, she produced her communicator and touched down on the sewer walkway – immediately noticing how warm its surface was.

"Robin, this is Starfire. There is something very strange in the sewers."

_"What's going on?"_

"The temperature in here is.. very high. I do not think these passages are meant to be this warm. It is extremely uncomfortable for me to even fly here."

_"Alright, get out of there and come back to the Tower."_

A moment passed as Robin switched his communicator's channel to the general frequency shared by the whole team.

_"Raven, I need you to extract Beast Boy immediately. Those sewers aren't safe. The three of you need to return to the Tower as soon as possible. Beast Boy, how are the sewer conditions at your location?"_

Quite some distance away near the outskirts, Beast Boy responded with a puzzled tone.

"Whaddaya mean? Seems fine here, what's the danger?"

A short pause.

_"Where are you right now?"_

The shapeshifter turned into a gnat and flitted up though a sewer grating, changing back and looking around.

"I'm over near one of those construction places on the east side of town, where they're building all the new houses."

_"Understood. Head back to the Tower, I'll explain when you all arrive."_ Another crackle and a click, then he was gone. Beast Boy took flight towards the Tower. Somewhere further in the city, a slightly melted sewer grate was blasted from its fastenings by a starbolt.

**-TT-**

Robin paced around the living room.

"New development, Titans. The temperature below the main metropolitan area is rising. It's bad news, but it helped us narrow our search, because nothing could survive in the sewer system of that area long enough to stage an operation like this. That means our way down had to have been somewhere near the outskirts."

"'Had to have been'? You found it?" asked Raven. Cyborg laid out a map with one building circled in red marker, near the edge of the town.

"Oh, yeah. See this place? It's an abandoned gift shop. Sells all sorts of hokey crap for people visiting Jump. Well, used to, before it went outta business. But its main attraction? Amethyst geodes. This store is sitting on top of an old mine that had nothing in it but amethyst. It's where the owner must've found all his prize merchandise." He moved the map and replaced it with a blueprint of the mine.

"Dude." said Beast Boy.

Robin nodded. "Yeah. The mine is the deepest thing around for dozens of miles, and like Cyborg said, it's abandoned. I did some research on the owner, some guy named William Tate. Apparently he closed up shop for good, because he hasn't paid his water bill in about five years. The land's privately owned, though – nobody to come evict him. His paper trail just stops there, the guy disappeared after that. And with no living relatives or friends that I could find, there was nobody to actually report him missing. His only legacy is this gift shop that's been sitting there empty for half a decade."

The team looked around at one another, savoring the brief triumph. They hadn't yet saved the day but they were making progress, and that always felt good.

"Such a place would be an ideal location for performing evil deeds. May we now go and stop whoever is behind this?" asked Starfire with fervor, a faint spark of green energy flickering across her eyes.

**-TT-**

As the Titans traveled across the thoroughly ruined city toward the outskirts, Raven kept thinking back to the way she'd snapped at Robin earlier. Most people would attribute it to a spur-of-the-moment mood swing, but Raven had spent her entire life suppressing and controlling her emotions. She simply didn't _do_ that sort of thing unless something was seriously wrong, which bothered her quite a lot.

There were several scenarios running through her mind, each one showcasing a potential cause of her outburst. She hadn't been meditating enough. Her control was slipping. Trigon had come back. She was finally inheriting her birthright in its entirety and was transforming into an unstoppable rage demon that would slaughter all her friends and-

No. No, no, no, cut that out, she thought to herself. Those are ridiculous and aren't happening. You _know_ what this really is, you know what it's about.

There was one scenario that she couldn't rule out, the one she'd been trying to avoid considering – because it had really happened. It was brief and still a blur filled with the scent of dust and broken masonry. But above all, one part of the memory stood out to her clear as day – that brief prickle of danger, that had been followed shortly by her own mental cry for help.

Raven had been thinking back to this moment ever since her friend had mentioned it to her in the infirmary. It was distracting and more frightening than anything she'd ever faced, because she had no idea how to deal with the new, rather turbulent emotions that it was ushering in. She had become more and more on edge as she pondered the event, until the realization of it all had slammed into her like a freight train.

"You look like you are thinking very hard, Raven." said a flowery voice next to her ear. Raven gave a start and recoiled in surprise.

"Uh. I, um. Well, no, I was just thinking about.. uh.." Why weren't words coming to her? Anything! Say _anything_, damn it. Finish your sentence and stop acting like such a fool.

Starfire stared at her with bemused puzzlement. They flew through the air for the next few seconds in silence.

"You are thinking about..?" she offered again.

"What?"

"I- um, I just wanted to know what was troubling you. You seem distrac-"

"Milkshakes."

It was Starfire's turn to search for words. She spoke slowly.

"You are.. troubled.. by milkshakes?"

By the time the words had left her mouth, her friend had already accelerated towards the now visible gift shop, appearing to not have heard her.


	5. Chapter 5

The Titans arrived at the gift shop. The landscape looked like a scene out of post-apocalyptia, with the small building built into the side of a hill having been left in disrepair for years. The rust-eaten front gate dangled from its fence by a single forlorn hinge. The nearby billboard was the only sign that this had once been a business, but even that had been weathered beyond recognition.

"Well, this is it," said Cyborg as he began to scan the area. However, it didn't need to be pointed out. Instead of periodic tremors, there was now a constant deep hum vibrating through the earth and air all around them that would occasionally leap violently in power, as if someone was playing with the bass dial on a sub-woofer the size of a football field.

Robin inspected the place with his keen eyes as they advanced towards the shop.

"There's a few signs of life. Looks like there was a fire being burned at one point," he said, gesturing to some recently disturbed coals on the ground. "Remains of a scavenged meal, too. Squatters. Probably took off when the tremors started." They reached the door of the shop.

"Alright. Beast Boy and Raven, do a double sweep of the grounds and make sure there's nobody tailing us. Starfire and Cy, come with me. We're gonna take a look inside." Beast Boy grinned impishly at Raven, who quickly wiped it off his face with a glare. They silently took flight as Robin led the way into the gift shop, staff at the ready.

It was a fairly standard shop design. A single counter with cash register. Five aisles for goods, their shelves now devoid of anything but dust and cobwebs. Starfire and Cyborg lit the room up. The entire shop appeared to have been ransacked for anything of value some time ago. The only identifying feature was an unrolled sleeping bag in a corner, likely belonging to whoever had made the fire outside. A few empty cans sat on the floor next to the bag, the remnants of one still dripping on to the floor.

Robin sniffed it, and scooped a bit off the floor with his finger, popping the substance into his mouth. He swished it about thoughtfully for a few seconds before declaring that this had been a can of baked beans.

"Dude, I know you're a good detective and all, but even _I _think that's disgusting," said Beast Boy. He and Raven had returned from their sweep of the grounds. Robin ignored his comment, ever the stoic leader.

"Anything out there?"

"No. We're alone," replied Raven, letting her hood down. "But I don't think whoever's causing this kind of damage could be on the surface anyway."

"Then let's get down there and find him."

After some deft lock-picking, they proceeded through a door labeled EMPLOYEES ONLY behind the cash counter. Sure enough, there was another door behind that one, this time labeled MINE ENTRANCE.

Passing through, the temperature noticeably raised several degrees. The door led directly to a natural cave, with numerous mining lamps dotting the path further in. Robin narrowed his eyes with suspicion.

"Working lights behind a locked door? Someone's definitely in here somewhere. We're on the right track, Titans." They followed the path further, until the cave opened up into a vertical shaft into the earth littered with excavation equipment. It was quite wide, with Cyborg's flashlight just barely illuminating a small patch of rock on the far wall. Starfire wore a picture of worry on her face as she looked at the wooden beams supporting the hollowed out ceiling stretching above them.

"I do not like it here. Why could the evil person not have made their lair on a nice beach by the ocean?" She shivered.

There was an old mineshaft elevator, but the car was missing and presumably at the bottom. The flying Titans carried their less mobile teammates down the large, deep mineshaft, which became narrower and narrower near the bottom.

When they touched down at the deepest point, there was only about thirty square feet of floor to stand on, half of which was occupied by several large chunks of jagged rock and a pile of smaller debris. Beast Boy noticed something glinting among the rocks.

"Huh, what's.. oh. Oh man. Hey, uh, guys? You should see this."

The team gathered around him at the foot of the debris. He briefly shifted to a gorilla and gently heaved one of the large rocks off the pile.

"I think I found the gift shop owner."

A skeleton grinned up at them from its stony tomb, left hand still loosely clutching a pickaxe, and a gleaming nametag clinging to the threadbare polo shirt it wore: HI, MY NAME IS _**BILL**_.

"That's him, alright," said Robin as he set about the grim task of searching the body for any evidence or something that could help them.

Cyborg glanced at the skeleton, brow furrowed.

"I was kinda bankin' on this guy being the big bad, but I guess that's out of the question. He's probably been dead for the whole five years." Robin nodded in agreement.

"There's no key on him, either. Seems like Tate here just had an unfortunate mining accident, and someone else found the place afterward and took over."

"My friends, please come this way," echoed Starfire's voice from within the passageway.

Cyborg started down the hall. Robin followed him, but stopped as Beast Boy's hand tugged on his shoulder.

"Shouldn't we do something about this guy, Robin? Like.. bury him, or..?" His eyes immediately shot wide open. "I-I mean, bury him properly! With a gravestone and stuff!"

Raven answered him. "We can do that afterwards, but stopping this crisis comes first." Robin nodded.

"Come on. Let's go see what Star found."

They followed the passage to its end, to discover Starfire standing in front of a gleaming door of brushed steel. There was a computer terminal embedded in its frame. Stencilled in paint above the terminal were the characters "**SL-1**".

"This is not old and broken like the rest of the things here. I do not think this is part of the mine," she stated, turning around to face her teammates. "It is here. This must be our destination." She looked at each of them with renewed vigor. Raven did her best to avoid her gaze.

It only took a minute for Cyborg to bypass the door security, and it slid open with a satisfying hiss. Expecting the worst, the Titans readied themselves for combat- but were merely presented with a small, modern-looking room. The pleasant white walls were lined with what appeared to be crash seats. There were fluorescent lights illuminating it brightly like an office, and several large unmarked crates, strapped down to thick metal loops jutting from the floor.

_"All passengers aboard. Please take your seats. There is a general emergency on Sub-Level Three."_

The synthetic voice took the Titans by surprise, as the elevator door slid shut behind them. Hidden machinery groaned to life behind the walls. The elevator hummed with power.

They only had a splitsecond to enjoy the confusion before an official-sounding _ding_ rang out and the elevator instantly plummeted down into the earth at breakneck speed.


End file.
